


Not a Kid

by Alineko



Series: The young and (a little bit) broken [1]
Category: Marvel 3490, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types, earth 3490 - Fandom
Genre: 20 years old Tony Stark, AU female Tony, Age Difference, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Aunt Peggy Carter, Avengers and Tony Stark friendship, BAMF Steve Rogers, BAMF Tony Stark, Clint Barton & Tony Stark Friendship, Clint Barton Needs a Hug, F/M, Fem!Tony Stark - Freeform, First Meetings, Fluff and Angst, Fluffy Ending, Healing Tony Stark, Howard Stark's A+ Parenting, Mutual Pining, Natasha Romanov & Tony Stark Friendship, Natasha Romanov Is a Good Bro, Pre-Relationship, Protective Avengers, Protective Natasha Romanov, Steve is a Bully, Stony - Freeform, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Uncle Nick Fury, Young!Tony, a little bit of ooc, but not too much, kind of, mature tony stark, okay maybe a lot, slight angst, stony fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-19
Updated: 2018-10-03
Packaged: 2019-07-14 06:02:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 13
Words: 19,454
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16034480
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Alineko/pseuds/Alineko
Summary: Natasha Stark has always look younger than she really is, so how do you convince a bunch of superheroes that you are actually 20 years old? and right in the middle of the New York battle?"Really Cap I can take care of myself, I'm not a fucking teenager"Basically MCU The Avengers but with a very young and very female Tony Stark





	1. Starks are made of Iron

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Behind Every Good Man](https://archiveofourown.org/works/3197840) by [PotterheadAvengerDemigod](https://archiveofourown.org/users/PotterheadAvengerDemigod/pseuds/PotterheadAvengerDemigod). 



> This is my first fic publish in Ao3 and also my first Marvel fic, so I hope you like it  
> Also, funny story? I haven't actually seen Iron man 2, oops.  
> And this is a beta-less story so any mistakes are on me.  
> Anyway... enjoy!

Antonia Stark was a 3-year-old little girl when she first created a circuit board, unfortunately, Howard was unimpressed and proceed to ban her from his lab. She learned what it meant to be strong and to not to cry when weeks after that, her father submitted her to a lot of different tasks, most of them including being handed hot or sharp objects, she was a Stark so she had to be made of Iron. She was 4 when her mother showed her the power of ‘inocence'; the board members of SI didn’t even see it coming, but when she got them to agree to Toni being the youngest stockholder with only a soft voice and her eyelashes, was when the little girl understood that strength and power can have many forms.

Antonia was 6 her mother and her aunt became her heroes, she wanted to be more like Maria and Peggy, and she decided that Antonia or Toni was a too much of a male name for that, so secretly (without Howard noticing) she changed her first name to Natasha, Natasha Antonia Stark.

Natasha was 10 when her parents and Jarvis died in a car accident. She cried, but only for her mother and her dear butler, even at that age, she understood that Howard was too much of a drunk and beating bastard to deserve her pain. She was 11 when she had to learn to be more mature, she let Obie control SI with the condition that she'd spent time there learning, so she had to divide her time between MIT, socialite life and SI, and if it wasn’t because of Rhodey, aunt Peggy and aunt Angie, she would have probably collapsed.

Natasha was 14 when she first had sex, she was somehow in love with this Tiberius 'Ty' Stone kid, barely older than her for 3 years, so she let him convince her of giving her all; he broke her nose a month later during a fight, Rhodey broke both of his hands and Peggy made sure to destroy his life. She was 15 when she created JARVIS, she also met Pepper and decided that she would be her best female friend, and it was around the same time when both of them started working on Stark Industries while she pursued her second PhD; Natasha thought she knew everything about her father's industry so far, she created new weapons and sell them to the US army, she was really grateful to Obie for handling things there, she was wrong.

Natasha was 17 when she was kidnapped by the ten rings. She was held in a cave along with Yinsen for 3 months, being tortured until she agreed to recreate the Jericho missile, before escaping with Mark I and a piece of metal deep in her chest. She couldn’t save Yinsen though, and she mourned him for months, finally creating a whole new research and development department in his honor: clean energy.

After seeing the Ten Rings’ lair full of her weapons she made the decision of closing the weapons manufacture. She made the public announcement right after she let Rhodey know, he was mad at her, but he would come around once she explained to him the reasons. The board wasn’t happy either and they try to use her underage to their advantage, but Natasha hadn’t forgotten her mother’s lesson, so she used her puppy eyes, making the most of her childish features, and her stubbornness to convince them. She was as sweet as she could to get them to listen and then she proceeded to explain the type of change she wanted to make in SI, that they didn’t want to be remembered as the greatest murderers in history, but as the ones who made a good change in the world. She talked with the passion and conviction that she had seen in her aunt Peggy and if by the end of the board meeting they weren’t fully convinced, she asked them to give her three, no, two months to raise the stocks to a whole new level than ever, and that if she couldn’t do it, they could be back to make weapons. 

Day and night she worked hard to accomplish that, she didn’t want to sleep anyway, the nightmares about water and her new arc reactor being present almost everytime she closed her eyes. Following the change in SI, she created Mark II, everything was a blur after that. She was almost 18 when she learned about Obie’s betrayal in the worst way possible and it was purely in spite that she dragged herself to her spare arc reactor and went after him.  
It was, surprisingly, the first time she followed an order and she didn’t tell anyone she was Iron-Man

“I want to talk to you about the Avengers Initiative” the SHIELD director went to her one night after JARVIS allowed him access to the Malibu house and proceeded to explain  
“Uncle Fury, as much as I like you, I don’t really trust that much in spies and right now I have a lot on my plate” the girl made a pause, she didn't mention that she would rather talk to aunt Peggy before making any decision “I can be a consultant if you like”  
“I’ll send you an agent to help you with your work then”  
"And to spy on me?” Natasha smiled knowingly  
Fury didn’t answer but his grin was enough

Her name was also Natasha, even if she went by Natalia, she was really beautiful and young Tasha became infatuated with her, she started being flirty and childish with her. In retrospect, her life was actually really nice at this point, she could deal with her PTSD with the help of JARVIS, Rhodey, Pepper and her aunt Peggy, even if she was in a retirement home, SI and Iron man kept her busy and somehow happy... and then she was dying... again 

She was 18 when she trashed her home by throwing a tantrum, granted, she was being childish and probably letting her mother and aunt Peggy down, but she was dying, and nobody knew (her own disappointment in trying to find another element that could replace the palladium was enough without having to deal with the worry of her family, thank you very much). Then she learned that if it weren't for Natalia, she would really have died. Despite everything, Tasha couldn't stop thinking about whether the spy save her because of her or because Iron Man... especially after reading her report ‘Iron Man- Yes, Toni Stark- Not recommended’

She was laying in her bed while Natasha was idly drawing little circles in her naked back when she asked her about it "Iron man as a suit powerful so is needed in the field” the spy said while ghosting the young yet scarred skin with her lips “But you are so young котенок” when she called her kitten in Russian, the little Stark couldn't do more than blush “You didn’t tell anyone about your palladium poisoning and that’s not what a team does” Tasha shivered in pleasure at the kiss in her neck “And I do not recommend you throwing your life in any next danger” Tasha pouted but didn’t argue any forward, it was the only night she would ever get with the beautiful spy so she definitely wanted to make the most of it.

Tasha was 20, almost 21, looking like 17 when Agent (almost uncle) Coulson went to the newly Stark tower to ask for her help with a special Avengers mission, she agreed after some coercion from Pepper (while internally fangirling about Captain America, recently defrosted, and Bruce Banner being in the team) and put herself to research Selvig's work.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> if you like it (or not) I would love to read your opinions! kudos and comments are deeply appreciated :3


	2. The man out of time

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Steve Rogers thought he had seen it all, he was a super soldier from the 40's after all, yet here he was, fighting a god in Germany, and why does Iron man sound so funny?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry 'bout the shitty summary, but I'm glad that so many people liked the story :D  
> This chapter is from Steve's POV (or something like that) anyway, enjoy!  
> Pd. for future reference: Nat--> Romanov,  
> Tasha/Tash/Toni (in weird occasions)-->Stark

Steve Rogers, the super soldier from the 40's, Captain America, has been beating a punching bag since two hours ago when the nightmares started to be too much to endure. Each swing is like a memory trying to be repressed until he tears the bag open.  
Is when Fury reaches him, asking for help to recover the same weapon Howard Stark fished out from the ocean while looking for him: the Tesseract. Honestly, they should have let it there. He would go of course, if the world needed him again.

"Who took it from you?" he asks purely out of curiosity

"He's called Loki, he's not from around here, there's a lot we'll have to bring you up to speed on if you're in. The world has gotten even stranger than you already know" Fury says

"At this point, I doubt anything would surprise me" Steve answers while unraveling the tape off his hands and packing his stuff

"Ten bucks says you're wrong" Fury smirks "There's a debriefing package waiting for you back at your apartment" he adds looking at Captain America as he walks away.

 ~

Sitting in the Quinjet, Steve is holding a tablet watching the footage of his soon to be teammates, starting with the Hulk, he briefly wonders why would other people want to recreate the serum, also, why would SHIELD want to tinker with one of the most dangerous weapons in history? His musings are interrupted by Coulson’s voice.

“It’s really, it’s just a... just a huge honor to have you on board, and I know another person who is going to be very happy to know you” Steve smiled sheepishly

“Well... I hope I’m the man for the job” he was still getting used to having people who look up to him, he didn’t want to admit it but it put a little more pressure on the job

When they land in the Helicarrier Steve meets Agent Romanov and Dr. Banner, for a first impression, he thinks Banner looks like a swell guy despite his initial wariness, he doesn't know what to make of Agent Romanov though, she looks like she could kill you in any way possible while being elegant about it, he is not wrong. After they get inside, the Hellicarrier starts to fly and to reflect the sky, making it invisible at sight. Reluctantly, Steve turns to Fury (who has the smuggest smile in the world) and pays up. Sitwell informs them that Loki is in Germany, not exactly hiding and Steve proceeds to suit up.

~ 

"You know, the last time I was in Germany and saw a man standing above everybody else, we ended up disagreeing" the god stands still with a smirk in place

"The soldier, a man out of time"

"I'm not the one who's out of time" Steve prepares himself for the attack as agent Romanov flows the Quinjet and aims at Loki, threatening him. The fight start. Cap throws his shield but Loki swats it away, he tries to punch the god but still gets knocked down by him

"Kneel" Loki hisses

"Not today!" Steve answers and flips, knocking him with his leg, is in that moment when loud music overdrives the Quinjets speakers, blasting in the battlefield

"Agent Romanov, did you miss me?” a distorted but clearly excited voice sounds on the comms. Both the Captain and Loki looks up as Tash flies over in the Iron man suit and shoots Loki back to the ground before landing right in front of Steve and taking out all the weaponry. Rogers had seen the armor in the tablet's footage but seeing it up close he has to admit it is actually really impressive. “Make your move reindeer games” there's something weird in the mechanical voice that Steve can't quite put a name to it. At the sight, the mischief god raise his hands in surrender “Good move”

Steve gets close to his fellow teammate and greets him with a little “Iron man” that makes Tasha feel giddy

“Captain” she answers not letting her guard down around Loki.  
With the god secured in the Quinjet, all of them proceed to return to the Helicarrier, Tasha keeps her eyes on their prisoner the whole time and if she is internally bouncing for being next to her childhood hero, well only she and probably her dear Nat knows about it

“I don’t like it” Steve whispers close to the helmet breaking her focus, Tasha suppress a surprised yelp

“What? Rock of Ages giving up so easily?"

“I don’t remember being ever that easy, this guy packs a wallop” Natasha inwardly chuckle, but her genius and strategist mind already working a mile per hour

“While I agree with you, I truly want to believe that is actually this easy” she looks at Captain America and grins inside the helmet “Still, you are pretty spry for a capsicle” Steve raises an eyebrow, normally he would get upset over the name calling, but despite the weird and clearly amused tone, he doesn’t hear the type of bite he would expect from any other person

“I’ll take that as a compliment”

“Yeah, you do that” he almost hears the smug smile in Iron man’s face. The Quinjet shakes as thunder roars around it, Steve notice Loki looking worryingly outside the window

“What’s the matter? Scared of a little lightning?” he jabs

“I’m not overly fond of what follows” Seconds after, a tall, muscular blond enters the Quinjet, grabs Loki and leaves as quickly as he appears

“Now there’s that guy” Iron man adds 

“Another Asgardian?” Romanov sounds an equal measure of pissed and surprised

“Think the guy’s friendly?” Steve can’t stop himself from asking out loud

“Doesn’t matter, if he frees Loki or kills him, the Tesseract’s lost along with Barton and Selvig!” Tasha turns and gets ready to jump off the jet

“Iron man wait! We need a plan of attack!” Steve stops him, or at least he tries

“I have a plan... Attack!” she deadpans in all her 20ish glory, making the older man to almost groan at the simplicity of that answer, he grabs a parachute instead

“I'd sit this one out Cap, those two come from legends, they’re practically gods” Natasha intervenes seeing Steve as he prepares to jump

“There’s only one God ma’am. And I’m pretty sure he doesn’t dress like that” he says before jumping from the jet.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> comments and kudos are well received :3  
> I'll try to update every night if school lets me  
> btw, the little and subtle change of pronouns when Steve talks to Iron man is because he doesn't knows he is actually a she at this point (hope that makes sense)


	3. Don't play with gods

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Don't sweat it point break, you didn't break anything, also... I'm not a kid!!" -Tasha Stark at some point

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tasha's POV  
> and now the real fun starts! (also from here on, there's going to be A LOT of dialogue so be prepared)

Tasha clash against the new man and both of them crash in the forest, she stands and keeps her distance from the other god

“Do not touch me again!” he roars

“Then don’t take my stuff” she answers through the helmet

“You have no idea what you’re dealing with! This is beyond you, metal man. Loki will face Asgardian justice!”

“I’ll have you know that I, in fact, have a name, ‘sides, sure, he gives up the Cube and our friends and he’s all yours, until then, stay out of our way... tourist” she adds while she walks away, she doesn’t give more than two steps before being pushed into a clear by the damned hammer “Okay... now it’s on”

Tasha start fighting with the thunder god, at some point a lightning hits her and knocks her on her back

“Power at 400% capacity” JARVIS informs her

“Well how about that” she tilts her head and smile smugly. The fight continues, Natasha won’t admit it because it might create her some problems with her friends, but she is actually enjoying this, right until the point when the god lifts her and smashes her hard, she gets up quickly and looks ready to pounce when the shield stops them both by ricocheting between them.

“That’s enough!” Captain America storms to them “Look, I don’t know what you plan on doing here...”

“I’ve come here to put an end to Loki’s schemes!”

”Then prove it! Put the hammer down” Natasha feels a wave of panic, (that doesn’t have to do with the feeling of that weapon in her chest, shut up) and tries to stop it

“Yeah, no! Bad call! He loves his hammer!”

The god raises his hammer to the cap “You want me to put the hammer down?” he hits the vibranium shield, provoking a massive shockwave that blows Natasha up. When she stands up she looks at Steve and the shield in awe

“Are we done here?” Cap deadpans

~

Natasha is walking to the debriefing room, finally out her suit when she listens the others speak

“Have care how you speak, Loki might be beyond reason, but he’s still an Asgardian and he is my brother” the god, Thor, says with a grave voice

“He killed eighty people in two days” beautiful Nat adds, Tasha is really glad to see her again, low key she wonders if she’s going to be impressed with her growth

“He’s adopted” the god concedes and Tasha has to suppress a laughter

“Iridium, what did they need the Iridium for?” she hears Dr. Banner ask and takes that as her entering cue

“It’s a stabilizing agent” she waltz right in basking in the surprise looks “it means that the portal won’t collapse on itself like it did at SHIELD and it can stay open as long as Loki wants” she walks next to Thor and pats him in the arm “No hard feelings point break, you’ve got a mean swing” three pairs of wide eyes follow her walk to the crew “Uh... raise the mid-mast, ship the topsails” she says clearly having her fun. Romanov hides an amused smile “That man is playing Galaga! Thought we wouldn’t notice but we did” the genius looks awfully pleased with herself as she covers her eye and looks around “How in hell does uncle Nick do this?”

“He turns” Maria Hill says with an entertaining glint, she doesn’t notice when Tasha places a hacking device under the monitor

“Well that sounds exhausting” she makes a mocking pout and continues with the business talk “The rest of the materials Agent Barton can get his hands on pretty easily, only major component he still needs is a power source, it would have to be a high energy density, something to kick start the cube”

“When did you become an expert in thermonuclear astrophysics?” Hill asked with a raised eyebrow, Tasha beamed proudly at her

“Last night actually, the packet, Selvig’s notes, the extraction theory papers? I read them all”

“Does Loki need any particular kind of power source?” Steve asks, doing his best to keep up with the intel

“He’s got to heat the cube to a hundred and twenty million Kelvin just to break through the Coulomb barrier” Banner answers with a deep thinking expression, Tasha looks at him trying to not let her fangirl tendencies show, but still unable to suppress the exciting glint in her eyes

“Unless Selvig has figured out how to stabilize the quantum tunneling effect”

“Well, if he could do that he could achieve Heavy Ion Fusion at any reactor on the planet” Tasha looks about a second to go to jump and squeal like a little girl, and, if agent Romanov’s smirk is any indication, she is being pretty damn obvious

“I’m glad I found someone who also speaks my English” she grins at Bruce who flushes slightly, he's definitely not used to the adoration and admiration look that he is receiving from the kid

“Is that what just happened?” Steve’s voice shows a little bit of amazement and delight

“Who is this child and what is she doing in such a serious and dangerous situation as this?” Thor asks looking also amazed but confused, Nat takes the trouble to explain

“The kid...” she ignores the outrage squeal from her namesake and continues with a smirk in place “is Natasha Stark, genius, owner of Stark Industries, SHIELD consultant and Iron man in her free time” there is a quiet gasp from Steve, how could that little girl be Iron man?

Tasha pouts “I’ll let you all know that I’m definitely NOT a kid, I’m 20, completely an adult” she turns to Dr. Banner and proceeds to shake his hand, ignoring everyone else “It’s good to meet you, Dr. Banner, your work on anti-electron collisions is unparalleled. Also, I’m a huge fan of the way you lose control and turn into an enormous green rage monster” she smiles sweetly at him, Bruce looks down sheepishly

“Thanks, it's an honor to meet you as well” she beams at him, thinking how fun her next hours are going to be. Fury enters the room then interrupting Tasha’s train of thought

“Dr. Banner is only here to track the cube, I was hoping you might join him” if Tasha’s face could reflect any more happiness at the thought of working with a scientist she deeply respects, she would have blind everyone in the room.

“Let’s start with that stick of his, it may be magical but it works an awful lot like a HYDRA weapon for comfort”

“I don’t know about that yet, but it is powered by the cube, and I’d like to know how Loki used it to turn two of the sharpest men I know into his personal flying monkeys”

“Monkeys? I do not understand” Thor looks puzzled

“I do! I understood that reference!” Steve looks downright proud and Tasha has to ground herself so she doesn’t squeal again, Captain America looked so adorable that her fangirl-o-meter is going out of the roof, she rolls her eyes at her own thoughts, but with a fond smile set in place.

“Shall we go to play, doctor?” she asks Bruce trying to remain professional

“Let’s play some then” Bruce followed her lead with an amused expression

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't worry guys, stray kudos and comments will be well taken care of ;)


	4. Genius' shenanigans

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "I do not like Tasha Stark, that would be terribly inappropriate"  
> "Hey, Steve, ever heard of that river in Egypt? DE-Nile?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is mostly Steve's POV  
> let the fluff begin \o/

To say that Steve Rogers is amazed by the little Stark kid would be an understatement; sure he knew that Howard Stark had a daughter, but he didn’t expect her to be a genius or Iron man, or you know... too young to be both. She claimed that she was 20, but she looks younger, way younger. Her face still holds child-like features, her hair is long and wavy, currently arranged in a messy but cute ponytail, also, she's tiny, like, 'barely reaching Steve’s chin' tiny.  
Yet what the artist finds to be the most endearing thing about the little genius are her eyes. They are huge and very expressive, they have a color that resembles chocolate, Steve wouldn’t mind to lose himself in those. Especially when she beams at him as she did back in the debrief room, she was just so adorable, she provokes a protective streak within the soldier.  
But he doesn't have any furthest interest, because that would be completely inappropriate; it doesn't explain what's Steve doing outside the lab watching the two scientist work though. Which is really a sight to behold, seeing the kid walk like she owns the place, moving her hands around holograms, walking to Bruce and getting back. She is pure movement, fluid and easy and Steve aches for a pencil and a sketchpad. He doesn’t mean it, but his enhance hearing allows him to listen to the conversation, not that he understands half of what they are saying anyway

“The gamma readings are definitely consistent with Selvig’s reports on the Tesseract. But it’s gonna take weeks to process” Bruce low-key whines

“Well, if we bypass their mainframe and direct a reroute to the Homer cluster, we can clock this around six hundred teraflops” she says without missing a beat while looking at a diagram

“And all I packed was a toothbrush” Banner smiles looking at her

“Not even toothpaste?” she returns smirking and the doctor finds himself laughing, the action is contagious and Steve smiles as well “You know, you should come to STARK Tower sometime, top ten floors, all R&D, you’d love it, it’s candy land” she eats a blueberry from a little bag “I don’t really have someone to play with anymore who is nearly as fun as you” she tilts her head and lets a bit of her puppy eyes to show, she really wants Bruce to spent time in her labs, the research and discoverments they could make, and when they get Selvig back it'll be more fun

“Thanks, but the last time I was in New York I kind of broke...Harlem” at the sight of the girl’s eyes, Bruce looks away, he doesn’t know the full potential of that particular weapon, but he isn’t about to discover it

“Aww come on! I promise a stress-free environment, no tension, no surprises” Tasha says that but proceeds to poke Banner with a miniature electrical pod, which makes Steve’s heart stop for a second. If the Hulk were to come out so close to her... He walks in a bit more paled than before

“Ow” is Bruce only reaction

“Nothing?” Tasha tilts her head once more, looking completely innocent as if she hadn’t risked her life just a second ago

“Hey! What do you think you are doing?” Steve doesn’t raise his voice but he has a firm tone

“Wow, you really have got a lid on it, haven’t you? What’s your secret? Mellow jazz? Bongo drums? Weed?” she wiggles her eyebrows “Please tell me, I need some of it after board meetings on Mondays” she begs half joking (and half serious because board meetings are horrible, painful and just plain boring)

“Is everything a joke to you?” he asks rolling his eyes, ‘ _of course it is Rogers, she’s still a kid_ ' he thinks

“Only serious things” she answers with a smile and the tip of her tongue showing

“Threatening the safety of everyone on this ship is not a light matter” _you could’ve got hurt_ , he wants to add, instead he talks to Banner “No offense doctor”

“No, it’s alright, I wouldn’t have come aboard if I couldn’t handle pointy little things” he says while looking at Tasha, her smile doesn’t disappear completely but it dims

“You’re tiptoeing” she knows what is like, after her parents death and after Afganistan, people used to do that all the time, even the ones she trusted the most, she knows it's not a nice feeling and she doesn’t want to do the same with Bruce, now if she could say that to Captain America “You need to let loose sometimes you know? Stress is to be known as a potential cause of death these days” she explains all while looking at her STARKpad. Steve frowns at her, she looks up and seems to flinch at his expression “Look, if I really want to unleash him, I’ll put a repulsor in his face, this is nothing.” she looks at Steve’s eyes and then looks away, a sad glint in her face “Is like you don’t trust him” that streaks the soldier, especially because is somehow true

“Stark...” Bruce starts

“Tasha” she quietly corrects

“Tasha... the Captain isn’t wrong not trusting me, I can’t control it after all” Bruce also looks appalled by Tasha’s sudden sadness, she looks at him with a determined look

“But that’s not true, you said so yourself, if you couldn’t control it you wouldn’t be here” she turns to Steve “SHIELD and everybody else should trust him more, much more than uncle Nick any case”

The blond soldier raises an eyebrow “You call him uncle yet you don’t trust him?” Tasha sends him a look ‘ _really cap?_ ’ Steve scowls “You think Fury’s hiding something?”

“Okay first of all he was the one who taught me to never trust anyone, he said, and quote ‘never trust anyone Toni, not even the ones smaller than yourself, not even me’ so yeah, that’s a thing” she promptly ignores both of their curious glances over the Toni name “Secondly, he’s a spy, Captain, he’s The Spy, with honorifics and all, his secrets have secrets” she looks at Bruce “Are you going to tell me it doesn’t bug you that he calls us until now and not before?”

“You know... I uh... just want to finish my work here and...” Banner whispers trying to look anywhere else

“Doctor?” Steve prompts, Bruce sighs and looks at them

“'A warm light for all mankind’ that was Loki’s jab at Fury about the cube”

“I heard it” the Captain nods, Bruce turns to Tasha

“Well, I think that was meant for you, even if Barton didn’t tell Loki about it, it still was all over the news”

“The Stark Tower? That big ugly... building in New York?” Steve interrupts his rant at seeing the scowl on the kid’s face, it was more like a pout really, just when he thinks she can’t be more adorable...

“Hey! Don’t insult Pepper’s baby” she looks at Steve trying to be severe “It’s not a nice thing to do after she worked so hard on that” she whispers, he feels horrible with himself looking at the pained expression of the girl, which's half fake by the way; sure she's defending Pepper’s 12% fault in the design, but she also knows that not everyone likes it, hell, even Rhodey had mocked her at the time. But she always liked to throw older people who look down at her like this, it seems that Captain America isn’t the exception... as much as it stings

“I... sorry, you are right, it’s not nice and I apologized” she nods and gives him a little, more genuine smile. It's the first time someone doesn’t go out of the way in apologies and promises of rewards and stuff, which she thinks is pretty good for a change

“Apology noted and appreciated” she turns to Bruce again “You were saying?”

“Well... It's powered by Stark Reactors, self-sustaining energy source, that building will run itself for what? A year?” Tasha beams at them again

“That’s just the prototype, we are kind of the only name in clean energy right now” She looks so proud, and not without reason, that Steve has to suppress a smile of his own, Banner nods

“So why didn’t SHIELD bring her in on the Tesseract project? I mean, what are they doing in the energy business in the first place?”

“Hmmm I should probably look into that once my decryption programmer finishes breaking into all SHIELD’s secure files” she says zooming into another hologram. The soldier blanks for a beat

“I’m sorry, did you say...?” Steve looks taken back by that, Tasha at least seems a bit embarrassed as she smiles sheepishly

“JARVIS has been running it since I hit the bridge, in a few hours we’ll know every little secret SHIELD wanted to hide” Tasha holds out a bag of dry fruit “Blueberry?" Steve shakes his head and sighs

“And you don’t want to be treated like a kid. That snooping Stark”

“Tasha” she corrects again “And I would be offended if it was the case, which it isn’t, uncle Nick has been bothering me with testing their security program, it just happens that now is a good time as any” she grins again but now with a devilishly glint that has Steve’s heart beating harder for second

“Steve, tell me none of this smells a little funky to you?” Banner’s voice brings his mind back

“What I think is that Loki’s trying to wind us up. The man means to start a war, and if we don’t stay focused, he’ll succeed, we have orders, we should follow them” Tasha scrunches her nose adorably

“Following is not really my style” Cap smirks

“And you’re all about style, aren’t you?” Steve can't stop his eyes from wandering through the petit body in front of him, he definitely doesn’t mean the flirty tone. Tasha still recognizes it and bits her lip subtly but enough to have Rogers' attention  

“Why, Captain, I’m glad you noticed my new under-armor suit” she spins for good measure and tilts her head while battering her lashes. Steve blushes a deep shade of red that she thinks it's adorable and make her heart flutter, which prompts a grin on her face

“J-just find the cube” he says before walking out of the lab. His blush doesn’t vanish until he is on the other side of the carrier

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm weak for tiny tony


	5. Of genius and billionaires

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The one where Steve's a bully (but not too much) and Tasha knows better
> 
> a.k.a: The most SUST (Stony's unresolved sexual tension) scene in all marvel’s history

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For a minute it was going to be angsty... but then MCU feels happened :v  
> also, this is heavily dialogued because Avengers movie

Tasha watches Captain America leave the lab and low whistles

“That’s the guy Howard and aunt Peggy never shut up about? Thank god they took him out of the ice” Bruce can see a faint blush along with an interested glint on the girl’s face and smiles a little

“And he is not wrong about Loki, he does have the jump on us” Tasha seems to consider it for a second

“He does... but what he also got is an ACME dynamite kit that it’s gonna blow up in his face and I’m gonna be there when it does” she grins and Bruce half smirks

“And I’ll read all about it” she tilts her head again, the doctor quickly wonders if the action is on purpose all the time or she does it unconsciously

“Uh-huh, or, you know, you’ll be suiting up like the rest of us” Bruce scrunches up his nose in disagreement

“Ah, see, I don’t get a suit of armor, I’m exposed, like a nerve. It's a nightmare” ahh she could relate

“You know... I’ve got a cluster of shrapnel, trying every second to crawl its way into my heart” she points at her arc reactor in her chest “This stops it, this little circle of light. It’s part of me now, not just an armor, but without it, I would have never become Iron man, you know? it’s a.... a terrible privilege actually” Bruce sees for the first time a maturity that shouldn't be in a 20-year-old, not even a genius 20-year-old

“But you can control it...” he quietly says, a little appalled by what the kid had to suffer so young

“Well I had to learn how... otherwise I’ll be dead by now” she smiles self-depreciating and Bruce decides then that he doesn’t like that look in her

“It’s still different” He tries to look at the screen, but Tasha slides it so he sees her

“I’ve read all about your accident, that much gamma exposure should have killed you”

“So you’re saying that the Hulk... the other guy... saved my life?” she nods sightly “That’s nice, it’s a nice sentiment. Saved it for what?” Bruce can’t stop the bitterness in his tone

“Well, that’s up to you, you could be a regular genius scientist with powers or a superhero genius scientist with awesome powers” she sends him a knowingly half smile and gets back to work. Banner mimics her

“Like you?” he absently-mind asks

“Oh I’m no hero” she says chuckling “not yet anyway” Bruce sends her a curious glance but keeps working

~

Hours later, she and Bruce are working on deciphering the workings of the scepter while waiting for their program to find the Tesseract when Fury storms inside the lab

“What the hell are you doing Toni?” '  _oops_ ' she thinks, uncle Nick only calls her that when he is either worried or pissed or both

“Huh... I’ve kinda been wondering the same thing about you” she feigns innocence

“You’re supposed to be locating the Tesseract”

“We are, the model’s locked and we’re sweeping for the signature now, when we get a hit, we’ll have the location within half a mile” Bruce interjects

“And you’ll get your cube back, no muss no fuss” she smiles brightly while looking a collection of secret SHIELD files, then... “What’s phase 2?”

Steve chooses that moment to enter the lab and drop a HYDRA rifle on the table, he looks pissed “Phase 2 is SHIELD using the cube to make weapons” he looks over to Tasha, who is very much impressed, and shrugs “Sorry, the computer was moving a little slow to me”

“Rogers, we gathered everything related to the Tesseract, this doesn't mean that we’re...” Tasha moves the screen and shows them plans of the weapons

“You really shouldn’t try to lie to Captain America uncle Nick, it’s not nice” she sounds innocent but a smug undertone says otherwise, Fury sends her a look

“I was wrong director, the world hasn’t changed a bit” Steve says solemn, making Tasha feel slightly bad for him, the guy fought and sacrificed a lot for the country... a country that apparently didn't learn from their past mistakes 

Thor and Nat enters the lab then, with her eyes on Banner “You wanna think about removing yourself from this environment doctor?” she asks, Bruce looks pissed

“I was in Calcutta, I was pretty well removed” he looks at the Black Widow and confronts her "Did you know about this?

“Loki’s manipulating you” she says ignoring Banner's question 

“And you’ve been doing what exactly?” he jabs

“You didn’t come here because I bat my eyelashes at you” she deadpans. Tasha looks at them surprised, Nat flirted with Bruce? She sooo needed that story, ‘ _on a second thought... maybe later_ ’ she decides, seeing the tense atmosphere

“Yes and I’m not leaving because suddenly you get a little twitchy. I’d like to know why SHIELD is using the Tesseract to build weapons of mass destruction"

“Because of him” Fury points at Thor (like a kid acusing another to the teacher), who actually looks surprised and puzzled

“Me?”

“Last year earth had a visitor from another planet who had a grudge match that leveled a small town, we learned that not only we are not alone but that we are hopelessly, hilariously outgunned” Thor looks like he wants to protest but Fury isn’t done “and Asgardians are not the only one out there right? You’re not the only threat either, the world’s filling with people who can’t be controlled”

“Your work with the Tesseract is what drew Loki to it in the first place. It’s a signal to all the realms that the earth is ready for a higher form of war” Thor explains remaining civil

“You forced our hand, we had to come up with something” Fury defends

“Nuclear deterrent. Cause that always calms everything down” Tasha rolls her eyes

“Remind me again how your fortune was made? You have no right to talk here about this” Nicks says and she, and Steve, looks outraged

“Hey I experience the downside of mass destruction first-handed, I have the right to say whatever fuck I want” she protests at the same time that Steve’s defends her

“If Stark still made weapons she would be neck deep in this, yet she isn’t!”

“I thought humans were more evolved than this” Thor sighs and Fury looks personally attacked

“Excuse me, did WE come to YOUR planet and blow stuff up?” From there on the discussion escalates further and it looks like the shit is about to hit the fan any second. The Avengers don’t even notice the scepter glowing, and they definitely don’t notice how the attack outside the Hellicarrier begins

“It’s his M.O isn’t it? I mean what are we, a team? No, we’re a chemical mixture that makes chaos, we’re... we’re a time-bomb” Banner looks frustrated each second

“Well then, you need to step away” Fury looks at him warningly

“Why don’t we let the guy blow off some steam? I’d love to meet our other member” Tasha says with a grin, Steve looks at her as if she had grown another head

“You know damn well why! Now back off!” he doesn’t mean the harsh tone on his voice but he’s starting to feel very irritated for some reason, Tasha comes face to face with the Cap and tilts her head letting her hair to fall over her shoulder

“Oh, I’m starting to want you to make me” she leers, Steve has to fight a blush

“You are just a kid! A girl in a big suit of armor, take that off and you are only a little child” He snaps, but his words lose some of the severity because of the furious blush in his face, Nat looks at both of them and raise an eyebrow, Banner partially ignored

“You forgot genius, billionaire and philanthropist” she grins and Steve's frustration grows until he finally snaps

“I know people who are worth ten times you, I’ve seen the footages, you only fight for yourself, not the kind to make sacrifice play or to lay down on a wire and let the other crawl over, you are just an immature wannabe hero!” he doesn’t mean that (honest to god that he doesn't think that, at all), but the words are out before he can stop them. The change in her expression is minimal, but still evident for Romanov and Fury who knows her from a long time, for Bruce who has seen her real smile and for Steve who also has see her cute happy face before and is close enough to see the little contractions in her face muscles “I... don’t... I’m so-” His apology is interrupted by Tasha's cold remark

“Well, at least I’m not a bully” she says with a blank expression that she shouldn’t know how to do, Steve flinches and she lets her guard soft a little, the comment had hurt, a lot, and if she wasn’t convinced of her worth, it would have made a lot more damage knowing it came from her childhood hero (thanks Rhodey, Pepper, Jarvis, Mom and aunt Peggy for that). The environment is tense, and she knows something isn’t right; No matter what she thinks, the man aunt Peggy loved and used to speak so highly of, wouldn’t say something so cruel like that. It looks like she is the only one that notices it thought, with Thor insulting humans and Fury wanting to take Bruce somewhere else

“Where? You rented my room” he bitterly says, a twinge of green swirling in his eyes, soon enough he is admitting his dark past “I was good until you dragged me back into this freak show and put everyone at risk” he turns to Nat “You wanna know my secret to stay calm agent Romanov?! Do you?!”

“Doctor Banner... put down the scepter” Steve voice rings in his ears and he sees Tasha looking at him with concerned, Bruce notices a weight in his hands and soon realize that he is holding Loki’s scepter. The tense moment is broken by a beep coming from the computer, the Doctor puts the scepter down and walks to the screen alongside Tasha

“We located the Tesseract” she says plainly, she looks at the coordinates and adds “I can get there faster...” she starts saying before Thor interjects arguing that the Tesseract belongs to Asgard and only an Asgardian can control it, she rolls her eyes

“You are not going alone” Steve says looking severe yet worried

“Oh, I’m sorry, now you care? Hey, how about we suit up and race for it?” Tasha smiles at him again but it’s a strained one at best and a completely fake one at worst, Steve finds himself feeling awful over the fact that he put that expression on her face “I’m not afraid to beat an old man” she jabs

“Stark...” Is that moment when the engine in the Hellicarrier explodes and everyone inside the lab is thrown at every direction, Steve helps Tasha, getting a sniff of her perfume and feeling the softness of her body, leaving him lightheaded for a minute. Tasha isn’t better, getting to feel up close and personal 70 years of well-built muscles, a blush spreads in her face, rivalry momentarily forgotten; she feels a shyness she hasn’t felt since her years with Ty. “I’ll take your offer, put on the suit” the captain says as they leave the half-destroyed lab

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoyed it :3  
> Also, place your bets on Nat’s Romanov punishment on Rogers for his poor choice of words :D


	6. Lets team up

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "The Helicarrier is failing... Cap! stop falling for Tasha and help her out of the turbine!! and... Tasha! stop flirting with Cap and go help the rest of the crew!" -Fury at some point, probably

This is a mess, the Helicarrier being attacked and all of them fighting like little kids, and the only actual kid by age standards didn’t really intervene, Steve feels bad again remembering the blank expression on Stark’s face, but pushes the feeling for a while, having more urgent matters at the moment. Agent’s Hill voice sounds over the general comms

“Turbine’s loose, mostly intact, but it’s impossible to get out there and made repairs while we are on the air, and if we lose one more engine, we’ll stop being up here”

“Tasha you copy that?!” Fury voice sounds strained

“On it” it’s all her reply. She and Steve are walking through a debris-filled hall, she turns to him and says “Find engine three, I’ll meet you there” She walks into another room, most likely to get her armor. Steve leaves to suit up and find the damaged engine. When he gets there he sees that is, in fact, completely dead

“Stark I’m here” he says into their personal comms

“Good, let’s see what we got” over the chunk that was ripped off the Hellicarrier, Steve can see the Iron man suit fly near the turbine, he's still amazed by it, which makes the guilt over what he said earlier grow. Tasha muters under her breath some things he can’t understand, only making out the words ‘cooling system’, ‘dislodging’ and ‘debris’, then she turns to Steve, her mechanical voice ringing in his ear “I need you to get to that engine control panel and tell me which relays are in overload position” Captain America jumps over the destroyed railing, opens the control panel and promptly freezes ‘ _what the hell is this?_ ’ is the first thing that crosses his mind “What’s it looks like in there?” Tasha asks

“I... uh... well it seems to run on some form of electricity” he answers dropping a little sarcasm in there, somewhat embarrassed that he doesn’t have the slightest idea of what he is looking

“Well you are not wrong” Iron man voice sounds amused. She tells him what he should look out for and Steve checks everything all over again

“The relays are intact, what’s our next move?” he can hear her sigh

“Even if I clear the rotors, this thing won’t re-engage without a jump, I'm gonna have to get in there and push” Steve heart stops for a second

“But if that thing gets up to speed, you’ll get shredded” he sounds a little breathless at the idea of Tasha being possibly hurt

“Then stay in the control unit and reverse polarity long enough to disengage mag-”

“In English please!”

“Fine, see that red lever? It’ll slow the rotors down enough for me to get out, just trust me and wait for my word” she says while entering the turbine. Steve jumps next to the lever and waits

Soon enough a man appears and starts shooting at him and throwing him grenades, Steve jumps back to the other railing down with Loki’s goons. He starts taking them down, even going as far as to throw one of them off, but with one down, more men enter the room firing, he grabs a gun and starts shooting back at them. In the comms, he can hear Fury considerable shaken

“Toni! We are losing altitude!”

“Yeah, I’ve noticed, working on it” she sounds a little breathless and Steve can only imagine that she is moving the rotors. Losing focus, Captain America slides off the railing, only managing to grab onto a loose cable at the very last minute

Tasha continuously spins the engine, giving it her all, the rotors are propelling properly and fast, making the Hellicarrier level itself and not to fall killing everyone

“Cap, I need the lever!” she calls, a desperate tone in her voice

“I need a minute here!” Steve sounds out of breath as he climbs up the cable and reaches the railing

“The Lever! NOW!” is all what Tasha can say before being caught in one of the rotors. The suit gets chewed up and she lets out a tiny but painful yelp. Steve pulls himself up and, evading a man shooting him, finally pulls down the lever, Natasha’s safety being the one thing that impulses him. In the corner of his eye, he can see the Iron man suit head his way, the last man standing fires at the armor and gets tackled by it. Tasha opens the face plate and rolls over, tired.

“You okay?” Cap asks worried

“Still in one piece apparently” she breaths harshly “Gotta check the suit though” Steve nods, flinching when seeing the damage to it

“Hey, Stark...?”

“Tasha...” she corrects and adds “After not letting me die in that turbine I think you can try to call me by my name” Steve internally agrees

“Tasha...” the name leaves a sweet feeling in his mouth “I wanted to... apologize, for what I said before, I don’t know what... I just... It’s not true okay? You are great, a genius and a hero” he says fighting the blush that creeps in his neck for having a pair of big chocolate eyes looking at him intently

“Well, thanks, but you were right on something though, I’m no hero, not yet, I still have a long way to go to be like aunt Peggy” her voice's barely a whisper, her eyes focused on the ceiling

“Peggy? Peggy Carter?” she nods “You know Peggy Carter?” Steve’s eyes go wide, Tasha looks at him puzzled

“Well yeah? I’m the daughter of Howard Stark remember? Of course I would know her and all the Hollowing Commandos” her sweet smile returns to her face and Steve’s heart flutters “The weirdest uncles a little girl can have, but yeah” she tries to stand up and makes a pained expression when she does, the ever gentleman Steve Rogers helps her getting up and she smiles at him, gratefully “I must say though, you are too good looking to be as old and proper as they made out you to be” she smirks and Rogers can see the mischievous and flirty glint in her eyes, he feels his face warm, but he mimics her and grins

“And you are pretty swell for a brat” that prompts a delighted laugh from Tasha

“Alright old and hot stuff, let's see what else we can do to help” Steve feels happy and lightheaded at the 'hot' implication 

They are getting to the hallway when Fury’s voice sounds again in the comms, an urgent to it that stops Tasha in her feet 

“I need paramedics in the containment cell NOW! Rogers, Stark if you copy, see me in the debrief room as soon as possible, the situation here is... delicate”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hoped you enjoyed this little and somehow fluffy chapter :3  
> yeah... I'm probably not good at cliff-hangers but they are soo fun


	7. Tasha's little spidey nest

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> If there was one thing both assassins missed from their missions (besides Clint missing his family) was their little genius smile and her multiple shenanigans

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's a chapter dedicated to Tony's friendship with Clint and Nat (the prompt that I miss the most since Civil War came into existence, even if I haven't actually seen the movie)

Everyone in the debrief room has a look of numb shock in their faces, Tasha is out of her armor, her head resting in her holding hands and her mind running a mile per hour, she struggles to summary all the variables after seeing the footage of the different rooms

“So... Thor is inside the containment cell somewhere down there, Bruce jumped of the Hellicarrier trying to play catch with a jet, I lost my chance to see the Hulk...” she pouts quietly “Loki escaped and Coulson...” her voice almost breaks at the last one

“He is currently fighting for his life in what's left of the medical wing” Fury says while entering the room ‘ _oh thank god_ ’ Tasha thinks, after seeing Loki stab him she couldn’t stop thinking the worst case scenario. Fury puts Coulson’s Captain America cards on the table next to Steve, a little bloody “You might want to sign that, for when he recovers” Tasha nods, because (almost uncle) Phil dying is not an option

“So... on the bright side we have Hawkeye back and nobody died, that’s great” Natasha stands from her seat and hugs herself, deep in thought, trying to avoid the little voice in her head saying ‘ _yet, nobody died yet_ '

“We’re dead in the air up here, our communications, the location of the cube, Banner, Thor. I got nothing, lost my one good eye but I think I had that coming” Fury waits for a beat, he sighs and continues “Yes we were going to build an arsenal with the Tesseract, but I had a bigger bet, riskier. Tasha knows about this, it was called The Avengers Initiative. An idea of bringing together a group of remarkable people, see if they could work together when we needed them to, to fight the battles that we never could. Phil believes in that, heroes.”

But Tasha can’t hear it, she just can’t, she is worried and she can’t sit and let down another member of her little and strange family, so she goes out of the room, feeling Steve’s eyes burning her back, so what if she lets him down too? She can’t do it, she can’t play hero when Coulson is potentially dying and Bruce is somewhere in the middle of the fucking United States. Pepper would be mad, and Rhodey as well, because she did something reckless and she is hurt, her entire body hurts. And what can she do anyway? Go alone to punch Loki? No. She’ll just end like Phil. God, he is an idiot, why did he have to take on Loki alone? Why couldn’t he wait for reinforcements? Tasha swears to any god (including Thor) that if Coulson dies, she is going to find the way to revive him just to kill him herself.  
She can’t think very well so she goes to the only place where she doesn’t have to after Rhodey’s side: with Nat and Clint.

~

Her story with the spies is a funny one: after the one night only deal she got with the red-head, Romanov admitted that Tasha was something close to a little sister and that she reminded the spy of herself when she was still in the red room, hence the indulging Stark in her lust. Toni was surprisingly good with that and her crush evolved into something platonic, more like the thing she had with Rhodes and Pepper. So, Tasha stopped seeing agent Romanov when she left for her other missions, that’s why she was so surprised and pretty freaked out when, not long after her 19th birthday, a man dropped from her ceiling, injured and claiming to be with SHIELD and knowing Nat.

That man was Clint Barton, also known as Hawkeye. Tasha helped him of course and even gave him new arrows in exchange for an explanation of why and how he managed to get inside the house.

“Ventilation system” he said “you need more security in there” Natasha nodded with a raised eyebrow, quite impressed “As for the reason I’m here and not at SHIELD...” he shrugged “I’m undercover, but some thug shot me; if I go to SHIELD it could raise suspicions. Nat’s been talking high about you, which is something pretty damn amazing in itself, so I wanted to check you out and I thought that this was as a good time than ever right?” he smiled while Tasha cleaned the wound, she awkwardly smiled back

“Right... so... Agent Barton...”

“Clint”

“Clint, right... need anything else besides a couch to bleed out?” she asked with a tiny smirk which he mimicked

“Food would be nice, and booze, lots of booze” Tasha laughed but conceded. Moments later they were very drunk and talking away every little thing. By morning it was like they were friends from centuries.

In that year and a half, Clint kept visiting her sometimes when he wasn’t very busy since most of his missions were happening in New York anyway, he just took a suit in one floor of the tower, and Tasha was really fine with that, she liked the company. She went as far as to give him new arrows and upgrades on his bow, which he paid back with tips in security matters and even a bit of self-defense lessons. Soon enough, Barton looked at her like he would look a little sister (or a little pet in his own words), he told her a few missions stories when she couldn't sleep due to nightmares, sharing alcohol or just hot chocolate, on one memorable occasion, he told her when Nat scolded him for letting her drink, Tasha really laughed at that imagining the intimidating Romanov scowling at Clint just for let a 19-year-old drink her own alcohol, it was hilarious. They became close enough that Tasha knew about Laura and the kids and even if she hadn't met them personally, she sent them 5 years worth of Christmas and birthdays presents that month.

So yeah, she practically had accepted the mission as soon as the name Barton was involved.

~

Which is why she's at their door, wondering for a bit if he would be happy to see her, if it's okay for her to invade their privacy. She knocks anyway, the anxiety to see if he and Nat are fine stronger than her doubts. Nat opens and lets her in, Clint is sitting in a small bed, he looks at her and tries to smile but he falls short, Tasha's heart breaks a little at the sight

“How are you feeling birdie?” she asks kneeling in front of him

“Like someone took my brain out and play with it...” he looks down and then back to her, Tasha nods understanding that Clint doesn't want to elaborate

“You are going to be alright” she makes a pause and then asks “How did you get him out?”

“Cognitive recalibration it seems” he answers with the tiniest grin on his face looking at Nat, Tasha turns to her with a raised eyebrow

“I hit him really hard in the head” she deadpans and Tasha snorts

“Of course, I wouldn’t expect Black Widow to do any differently” she smirks, Clint laughs quietly, but soon enough his expression darkens again

“How’s Phil?” Tasha can feel her own eyes to cloud with worry

“He... he is fighting... delicate, but... he is gonna get better, he ought to” she says, trying to convince herself more than the two spies in the room, she looks at Clint and sees his pained expression “Don’t.” Tasha warns him while putting her hand on his “Don’t do that to yourself, this was Loki’s doing, it’s about magic and other stupid, senseless stuff” Clint nods

“I must be lookin’ real low if a kid's trying to comfort me” he jabs, but his tone is fond and grateful, she sticks her tongue at him

“I’m not a kid, old man” Tasha smiles and then assures him “We are going to get back at him, I promise, we’ll stop him”

“We? That doesn’t sound like you, who is we anyway?”

“Me and Nat if necessary, right Nat?” she turns to the Black Widow who is watching them from the doorframe

“Damn right” the spy agrees while turning a knife that came out of god knows where in her hands

“See?” Tasha grins satisfied with Nat's accomplice 

“This ain’t your fight Stark, and it’s far too dangerous... what did Loki do to you that you want to stop him so badly?” Clint looks deep into her eyes and she has to avert them after a while

“He made it personal, he attacked my family, 'sides I’ve been compromised from the start” she stands up and goes to the door “So prepare yourselves to see me punch a god in the face” is what she says before exiting, of course, she doesn’t get too far before a feminine hand stops her

“You do know I can see your insecurity from a mile away, don't you?" Tasha freezes, she does, after Rhodey, Nat is the second person that can see her and call bullshit the moment she puts her barriers up, perks of knowing someone when they are dying she guesses "You can do this котенок, we believe in you, and we are going to be with you, we'll have your back” Tasha fights back the tears at the endearment and her words of support, she has always been weak at the worry of the people she loves

“I... I’ll try not to let you guys down” she walks away, breaking the contact with Romanov’s hand

“You couldn’t do it even if you tried it, мой котенок” is what Tasha doesn’t hear

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's really easy to bond with a person in a really short period of time, so I didn't exactly exaggerate their friendship just to get away with the time frame... at least not too much :v  
> Sorry, I'm just sooo weak to all of them being friends and loving each other and being good with Tony as well, idk maybe I've just stumble with too many bashing and hateful fics lately, but I really hope you liked it  
> котенок-kitten  
> мой котенок-my kitten


	8. The calm before the storm

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Phil's an idiot, are all Captain America fans like that?"  
> "I don't know Tash, you tell me..."  
> "... touché"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> fluffy, fluffy, Steve's POV chapter  
> beware... I was half asleep when I wrote this

Steve finds her in the containment room. She is standing there, seeing the bloody pattern, not saying a word, she suddenly looks older than before, older than even her age. But that’s just an image, her youth is still there, hidded by worry and grief. The soldier doesn’t know what to say to her, he wants to comfort her at least, she seemed pretty shaken up by the whole deal earlier, and even if according to doctors, Coulson has good chances of walking by his own feet, he knows the risks are still there, so he doesn't want to say anything that could lead to misperceptions and a false sense of security.

“They say he will recover” Steve opts to say, Tasha doesn’t show any signs of listening to him other than nodding slightly “You two seem close” He adds trying to get her to open up, miraculously it works

“I used to go to SHIELD headquarters when I was a kid.... an actual kid” she adds feeling Steve’s disbelief, a soft smile appearing in her features “Sometimes I’d be with uncle Nick, sometimes Phil would take care of me while Howard and uncle Nick worked” her eyes looks far away, lost in the memories “Then, after Afganistan, he looked out for me, took care of Obediah’s death and the whole Iron man ordeal” she looks back at Steve “He really is a nice guy” her smile turns fond and she chuckles “When I was a girl we used to bond over who the biggest fan of Captain America was, it was really a sight to behold, just imagine a 30 something-year-old man passionately arguing why he was Captain’s America number 1 fan to a 5-year-old” she explains and starts laughing, which prompts an amused smile from Steve, he then remembers what Coulson told him earlier when they arrived at the Hellicarrier

“So... you are the other person that was excited to meet me?” Tasha stops laughing and blushes deeply, Steve can’t stop himself from falling a little bit from that adorable vision

“He said that huh? Yeah remember to strangle him when he is better” she says with a smile but the worry in her eyes is quite obvious, so obvious that the question leaves his lips before he can contain it 

“Is this the first time you see a soldier fall?” he asks quietly, not wanting her to storm out as she did before in the debrief room, but he can relate, he saw Bucky fell, after all, the wound was still there, so he wants her to know that she's not alone, she can share her pain with him, he can understand. Tasha sends him an odd look, not at all what he expected

“We aren’t soldiers” she makes a pause, letting the wall to carry her weight “We aren’t marching at SHIELD’s orders, and I recommend you to not doing it” she almost snarls at the last part 

“And why’s that?” Steve stand defensively 

“SHIELD is stained, we all have blood in our hands, you, however, are different, you were at war before, but that’s not the case now, if you are clever you are going to walk away from all of this and make yourself a better life, you deserve that much” her voice is almost a whisper, a rather angry whisper. Tasha looks at her hands for a split second, as if she expected to see the red substance there, his heart breaks a little bit, wondering, and not for the first time, what happened to her? 

“I’m not walking away when my people need me” is what he says instead because he knows that this neither the time or place to ask her personal questions like that 

“So you are an idiot just like Phil” her eyes show exasperation and maybe just a tiny bit of despair, but Steve knows better than to comment on that 

“Why? For believing?” he scowls, he can't help it, even back in the 40's he hated it when someone badmouthed about the men that were giving his lives in duty, even if he knows that Tasha isn't saying it with that intention 

“For taking on Loki alone” her eyes turn harsh, trying to hide the pain and the impotence 

“He was doing his job Tash” Cap tries to reason with her 

“He was out of his league, he should have waited, he should have...” her voice breaks and stamps her fist against the wall. Steve can see the little tremors in her body and he is by her side in a second, reaching for her hand, soothing the scratches

“Sometimes there isn’t a way out, Tash” he takes her hand and kisses the little wounds there, Natasha sees him with a pained look. Steve really wants to take away all her suffering, she is a 20-year-old for god’s sake! she should be optimistic and full of hope for the future (even he was like that and he didn’t know whether he was going to live for the next day with all his diseases and with what the were living in the war), she definitely shouldn’t have the tired look in her eyes, one Steve desesperately wants to make better, he knows it isn’t his place though “You can talk to him after all is over, right now we’ve got to put that aside and get this done, Now Loki only needs a power source, we can put over a list, check most likely places where he-”

“He made it personal” she blurts looking at the blood pattern again, Steve barely contains a sigh

“That’s not the point Tash...” he starts but stops once he sees her eyes grow sharp

“That’s exactly the point. That’s Loki’s point, he hit us all right where we live... why?”

“To tear us apart...” he concedes, Natasha dislodges herself from Steve’s hands and starts pacing, her mind racing

“He had to conquer his greed, but he knows he has to take us out to win, right?, That’s what he wants, he wants to beat us and he wants to be seen doing it... he wants an audience” she looks at him intently, her brain looking for the missing part of the mistery, Steve furrows his brow in concentration 

“Right, like what he did in Stuttengard” The mischief god could've fought them in any other place, or just kill innocents for the sake of it without so much show-making, but he didn't

“Yeah, and that was just the preview, this is the opening night. And Loki... he is a full-tilt diva, I should know...” Steve raises an eyebrow but doesn’t comment on it “He wants flowers, he wants parades, he wants a monument built in the skies with his name plastered in...” Steve can pin point the exact moment when all the puzzle pieces clicks together inside her brain. Tasha's eyes widden almost comically “Sonofabitch” is all she says, and storms out of the room, again

~ 

After Stark actually explains to Steve where they have to go, he goes to the medical room where both spies rest, in full uniform and shield now, to call them

“Time to go” he says to the spy sitting in the chair working on a gun

“Where?” Nat asks raising an eyebrow, she knew Tasha would work fast to know where Loki was but she didn’t expect it to be this fast

“I’ll tell you on the way, can you fly one of those jets?” Steve saw her being co-pilot, but he wonders if they would need a faster jet

“I can” Barton says getting out of the restroom

“You got a suit?” Cap looks at him, trusting Black’s widow nod confirming he is now on their side

“Yeah”

“Then suit up”

~ 

“Ready to go?” Clint asks all the heroes in Quinjet "Where to?"

“To New York" the soldier looks around him as Clint starts the jet "Isn’t Tasha coming with us?” Steve asks in a tiny hopeful voice, earning a weird look from the archer

“Probably she is going to the tower first so she changes her suit for a fully functional one” he explains simply, no stopping his suspicious look, he even shares a glance with Nat who sits right in front of Steve, who inwardly cringes at the exchange

“Clint, tell me when we are close to change your sit, I need to get my weapons ready” Steve can notice the meaningful undertone in that phrase, prompting a shiver to go down his spine, and with good reason, he notices, when she turns to him and while getting her already prepared gun out, she says “So... you seem to be quite worried about our favorite genius, you know, after what happened in the lab...” Steve gulps, the surviving part of his mind prays to God that they arrive at New York soon before Nat actually finds the way to kill a super-soldier

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tomorrow: Tasha vs Loki for Phil's honor  
> please don't mind me, I haven't slept :D so I hope that the mistakes I made aren't too terrible  
> also... yes!! Nat's going to torture Cap just a little bit, especially because she doesn't know that he already apologized, oh well, c'est la vie :D


	9. How not to start a fight

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Tasha gets thrown through a window first thing arriving at the battlefield

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's an advice: don't let your homework to accumulate and sleep!!! don't be like me!! really guys! I don't even know what I'm writing at this point

Natasha Stark is a genius, a patient and strategic woman who doesn’t do anything by pure impulse (Rhodey calls bullshit) so it’s all in her plans when she flies firstly to her tower in New York, despite what everybody else would say about being dangerous with the possibility of Loki being there, she has to change her suit to a more functional, less turbine damaged armor after all, so she is actually not doing something reckless and unnecessary, (shut up Rhodes).  
And since all of her theories result being true, or at least most of them, it’s not a surprise when she finds Selvig activating the device that’s holding the Tesseract

“Miss, I took off the arc reactor but the device is already self-sustained” JARVIS announce her, not exactly the good news she was hoping for 

“Shut it down, Dr. Selvig” she warns her fellow brain-washed scientist

“It’s too late! It can’t stop now. He wants to show us something! A new universe.” Selvig looks mad, probably a combination of Loki’s mental control and the usual scientific frenzy

“Okay then...” she whispers, aims at the CMS and fires, the energy from her boosters shatters, sending her and Selvig backward, she has to stabilize herself with her repulsors, yet the device remains unharmed

“The barrier is pure energy. It’s unbreachable” JARVIS explains a second later

“Yeah I noticed, but thanks for the warning buddy” Tasha replies in dry sarcasm “Okay... plan B”

“Miss the MARK VII is not ready to be deployed”

“Then skip the spinning rims, we’re on the clock here” Tasha lands and goes through the gauntlet that unsuits her. Loki is on the other side of the balcony, smiling at her, then proceeds to go into the penthouse, he strolls in, holding his scepter as Tasha casually walks down the steps towards her bar   

“Please tell me you’re going to appeal to my humanity” Loki smugly says

“Um... no, I’m planning to threaten you, actually” the god snorts

“You should have left your armor on for that” his smirk is frustrating and Tasha has to remind herself to remain calm, over and over again

“Yeah, it’s seen a bit of mileage and you’ve got the blue stick of destiny. Would you like a drink?” she asks reaching a shelf full of bottles

“Stalling me won’t change anything”

“No, no, no!, Threatening, I’m just being polite. No drink? You sure? I’m having one” she says serving herself a glass of whiskey

“The Chitauri are coming, nothing will change that. What have I to fear?” his amused tone and smile irks Tasha a little too much and to stop herself from doing something stupid, like throwing the entire bottle of good, expensive alcohol to him, she drinks the entire glass, then, she serves herself another one

“The Avengers” she simply says after knocking her first drink, Loki looks at her confused “It’s what we call ourselves, sort of like a team, ‘Earth’s mightiest heroes’ type of thing”

“Yes, I’ve met them, not so much of a threat though” he smirks

“Yeah, took us a while to get any traction I’ll give you that one” Tasha drinks half of the second glass and continues “But... let’s do a head count here: Your brother, the handsome and sparkly demi-god; the dreamy super-soldier, a living legend who lives up to it; an amazing man with breath-taking anger management issues; a couple of master assassins, a gorgeous genius, and you, big fella, you’ve managed to piss off every single one of us”

“That was kind of the plan” Loki chuckles 

“Not a great plan, mind you. When the others come, and they will, then we’ll come for you” she finishes the rest of her drink and pulls her brand new bracelets

“I have an army” Loki proudly says

“We have a HULK” just because of that the god should be begging for mercy really, who actually expects to win against a Hulk? 

“I thought the beast had wandered off” his smile while talking like that about Bruce almost makes her snap, almost

“You are missing the point” Tasha walks out of her bar “There’s no throne, no version of this where you come out on top. So maybe your army comes and maybe it’s too much for us, but it’s all on you... Because if we can’t protect the Earth, you can be damned well sure we’ll avenge it” Loki slowly walks up to her raising the scepter

“I like you, you know? A fierce woman, you might be a good addition to the throne..." a little shiver runs down her spine at his words, it doesn't show "but before that, I can assure you, your friends won't even be having time for me, since they’ll be busy fighting you” Loki taps Tasha on her chest with his scepter, a ping sounds the moment the magic staff touches the reactor but nothing happens, Loki tries again but still the energy dissipates doing nothing. “Weird... it usually works” she smirks this time

“Huh... probably I’m too good for you, also, performance issues you know? It’s completely normal for amateur...” Angry, Loki grabs Tasha by the neck and flings her across the room and, wow that hurts “JARVIS? Anytime now if you please” her voice is strained after the hit, the god goes to her and grabs her by the throat again

“You will all fall before me” he hisses before throwing her out the window.

Natasha freefalls down the tower, waiting until a red pod shoots out, it levels with her and laser signal the Colantotte bracelets on her wrists and begins to transform into the new MARK VII suit. It latches onto her body and flies up just before hitting the ground, she reaches the penthouse window in seconds, Loki looks up at her, clearly upset over the fact that she didn't die.

“And there’s one other person you pissed off! The son of Coul sends his regards” she deadpans and fires at Loki, sending him on his ass

It’s in that moment when the device goes off and the Tesseract energy beams into the sky, forming a dark vortex that opens up letting the Chitauri army to spill out in flying chariots, carrying energy rifles with bayonets on the end

“Right... Army” Tasha flies up towards the portal launching miniature multiple rockets that take down several targets, something like Jericho but tinier, cuter and deadlier, yet her weapon is useless as thousands of Chitauri fly out, she then makes the call to fly down to the city. The army blast things as it goes blowing up cars and buildings causing explosions to rip out all over the city. Soon enough, the Quinjet appears and start shooting aliens

“Stark, we’re heading northeast” Black Widow’s voice sound in the comms system

“What, did you stop for drive-thru? Did you at least bring me something? What the hell took you so long?” she blasts another Chitauri, without even seeing it 

"And here I thought you'll be happy to see us" Clint butts into the comms, prompting a delighted laugh out of her "I'm wounded, let's go eat some pasta Nat, we are not wanted here" Tasha rolls her eyes, he's ridiculous

"You are so dramatic sometimes Katniss, I swear" she chuckles "Besides you can't have any pasta without me birdbrain, you know the rules!" she says in mock dismay, the assassins can even see the grin in her voice

"Pot, meet kettle" Nat sounds completely amused and Tasha can say with all security that she has missed this, not the battle, but spending time with her favorite spies

She sends her repulsors at another bunch of Chitauri soldiers and grinning she adds “Swing up Park, I’m gonna lay ‘em out for you” she swoops down the street causing an alien to crash, then she puts the ones that are following her in view of the Quinjet to let Nat shoot them with the jet’s machine gun.

“Miss, we have more incoming” JARVIS informs her ending just a tiny bit of her goofy mood, the things keep coming and it's annoying 

“Ugh, fine” Tasha practically whines “let’s keep them occupied” she heads back to the portal to continue to take enemies down. She hears a primal roar that makes her cringe, when she looks up she immediately regrets it. From the portal, a fucking Chitauri Leviathan flies out carrying hundreds of soldiers

“Iron Man are you seeing this?” Cap’s voice reaches her and she briefly wonders if he looks as amazed and horrified as he sounds 

“Seeing, still working on the believing. Where’s Bruce? Has he shown up yet?” she asks as she directs herself towards the huge monster, the thing's gonna destroy the city and she can't have that 

“Banner?” Steve asks confused, they didn’t even know where he was yet Tasha seemed sure that he was going to appear soon

“Yeah, I'll take that as he's not here yet, keep me posted 'kay?. JARVIS, find me a soft post” she quietly flies behind and parallels with the Chitauri Leviathan

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> funny story: some descriptions like the "Fucking Chitauri Leviathan" actually comes from The Avengers' script :v


	10. Round 1... Fight!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Dr. Banner, now might be a really good time for you to get angry”  
> “That’s my secret, Captain. I’m always angry”

It was a good thing that Steve didn’t make another bet with Fury because he would have lost miserably after seeing the damned monster that came through the portal. The thing was huge, and practically unreal, without the heavy hitters like the Hulk or Thor it would be impossible for mere humans like them to take it down (Super-serum be damned), at least they had the genius on their side. Speaking of the devil... ' _What does that kid think she's doing?_  ' is the first thing that comes to his mind when he sees Iron man flying towards the Leviathan. He isn't going to even try to pretend that he isn't worried sick for Tasha, leveling with that thing, bad enough was that she had to go and confront Loki all by herself in the first place, especially after she even called Coulson an idiot for doing so. ' _Hey, Pot!_ '  he thinks with fond exasperation     
He really wishes that she would’ve waited to go with them in the Quinjet at least (leaving him with Nat so she could stab metaphorical knives on him for what happened in the lab had nothing to do with that desire).

He looks down the bridge he is currently in and sees the people who try to flee from the hostile alien army

“Those people need assistance down there” he can’t move a finger though since the Chitauri soldiers that landed near the Avengers start firing at them. Black Widow pulls both pistols out and fires

“We got this, it’s good, go!” Steve turns to Clint for confirmation 

“You think you can hold them off?”

“Captain” Hawkeye pulls a trigger on his bow that chooses an arrow mechanically “It would be my genuine pleasure” he then shoots into a creature’s head, gaining a few seconds for Steve as he falls down the bridge and races to the plaza, jumping over dozens of exploding cars. He can hear Tasha’s voice on the comms

“Hey, doesn’t this looks like that story that you guys told me about? What was it...? ah! the one in Budapest?” 

“Told you” Nat smugly says at Clint’s groan

“Yeah well... Nat and I remember Budapest very differently” is all he says before another explosion blows near

“Guys... please stay focus” is all Steve adds noticing the increasing amount of bantering in the middle of the battle. He heads to a couple of police officers and jumps in the car front of them “I need men in these buildings, there are people inside that can run into the line of fire, you take them through the basement or through the subway. You keep them off the streets. I need a perimeter as far back as 39th” he orders without a second thought

“Why the hell should I take orders from you?” the police sergeant snaps, but before Steve can say anything, an explosion comes behind him, the energy blast being blocked by his shield, then, two Chitauri soldiers attack and he fights them off with ease, he can hears the same sergeant say to the other officer “I need men in those buildings, lead the people down and away from the streets, I need a perimeter as far back as 39th”

Steve rapidly goes back to his teammates to help, uses his shield to hit oncoming Chitauri soldiers, it quickly becomes too much for them though, fortunately after a few minutes a lightning strikes down from the sky, channeling the blast, firing the electricity out of the aliens around them. They're blasted back in a massive shockwave, the Chitauri convulse to then drop dead to the ground. Thor lands right beside them

“What’s the story upstairs?” Steve turns to the newcomer

“The powers surrounding the cube is impenetrable” The god explains

“Thor's right, we gotta deal with these guys for now” Tasha’s voice sounds over the comms, a roar can be heard at not so much distance immediately after, Steve's enhance hearing catches a mutter under her breath "Well... we got his attention, what the hell is step two?" what in the nine realms did Tasha had to do to get that monster's attention? Steve decides right there and then that he doesn't want to know

“How are we supposed to do this?” Black Widow breathlessly asks looking all over the half-destroyed buildings

“As a team” it's Steve simple answer because they have to stop them, they have to defend New York, they have to save the Earth

“I have unfinished business with Loki” Thor informs them

“Yeah? Get in line” Clint deadpans while getting his arrows ready

“Save it, Loki’s gonna keep this fight focused on us and that’s what we need. Without him these things could run wild. We got Tasha up top, she’s gonna need us...” he interrupts his strategic plan when Bruce appear in a ridiculously small motorbike, getting off, he looks around the city

“So... this all seems horrible” is the first thing the scientist says

“I’ve seen worse” Nat adds without thinking

“Sorry” Banner sheepishly apologizes

“No... we could use a little worse” she rephrases 

“Tash? We got him” Steve says into the comms

“Bruce?” her voice sounds excited even with the mechanical voice making him smile

“Just like you said” Cap concedes

“Nice! Tell him to suit up, I’m bringing the party to you guys” Steve can see her coming out from behind a building, the Chitauri Leviathan follows her impatiently

“I... I don’t see how that’s a party” Nat stutters a little raising an unamused eyebrow

Iron Man swoops down the street, the monster following close, making a disaster of a few buildings still standing, Banner start walking to it

“Dr. Banner, now might be a really good time for you to get angry”

“That’s my secret, Captain. I’m always angry” Bruce’s body starts to swell, stretch, get bigger and green. The Hulk smashes the Leviathan right in the nose, managing to flip the creature over 360, letting Tasha, who’s ready with her arm and a rocket out, to shoot to a soft spot. The Leviathan is blown away. Steve raises his shield to block the debris that falls to them, protecting Nat with the same movement, Tasha lands next to them. The Avengers Assemble as more Chitauri soldiers and Leviathans fly out of the portal

“Guys....” Black widow calls in warning of the increasing enemies

“Call it, Cap” Tasha’s certain and determined voice boost his own confidence, they can do this

“Alright, listen up, until we can close that portal up there, we’re gonna use containment” his strategist mind racing to lay down a functional plan in less than seconds “Hawkeye, I want you on that roof, eyes on everything, call out patterns and strays. Iron Man, you got the perimeter, anything gets more than three blocks out you turn it back or you turn it to ash”

“Mind giving me a lift kiddo?” Clint turns to Tasha who smiles inside her helmet

“Of course! Better clench up Legolas” the smirk is obvious even without seeing her face. He goes to her and passes an arm behind her neck so she can lift him with the armor

“Thor, you’ve gotta try and bottleneck that portal, slow them down, you’ve got the lightning, light the bastards up” the god do as told and flies with his hammer, Steve turns to Nat “You and me, we stay here on the ground keep the fighting here. And Hulk...” the green monster turns to him “Smash” Hulk smiles a magnificent grin and leaps soaring high into the nearest building.

And with that, the true fight begins

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What's the Avengers without Budapest, am I right?


	11. Welcome to Earth

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's called 'karma' and it's pronounced 'haha fuck you'
> 
> a.k.a: the one when Tasha Stark dies, again, and still manage to spit on the alien's face

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In my defense... I tried to do it a little bit angsty, I really tried

The battle begins, Tasha is rooming through the buildings, destroying the strays Clint points out and making the Leviathans follow her. With all the adrenaline, her senses intensify, she can hear the Hulk roar and jumping from building to building, smashing aliens, she can hear the thunders Thor sends to the portal and the destruction this causes, killing and exploding both Chitauri soldiers and monsters. She can hear the others in the comms, deciding to let them open so not to waste time or movements on it

“Tash, you got a lot of strings sticking to your tail” Clint amused voice sounds over the others

“Ugh, you just try to keep them off the streets" she whines prompting a fond grin of the archer, it’s the first time they fight together and he is enjoying it immensely

“Honestly, they can’t bank worth a damn, find a tight corner” he says while shooting to an alien behind him

“I will roger that” she smiles bemusedly, she does so and leads towards tight corners in Hawkeye's view, who fires arrow upon arrow, exploding the Chitauri riders, Iron man keeps leading Chitauri under tunnels, through open parking garages until she looks back and there’s none left “Nice call” she says blasting more aliens that are in the ground “Hey, this is getting old, lets make a bet”

“That sounds like fun, what kind of bet?” Clint asks, a rider exploding at his right

“The one who kills more of this things wins” she answers with a childish tone

“Sounds good, what's the prize?” the archer perches himself to survey the battlefield 

“How about...losers invite dinner?” she grins

“Does JARVIS’ going to make the count?” Nat butts in

“Yes?”

“Then no, you’ll have the advantage of a more accurate countability” she explains as she fires the invaders

“Good call Nat” Clint adds, they can even see the pout in Tasha’s face

“Not fair guys”

“Can’t you all stay focused?” Steve voice sounds exasperate but not angry so Tash counts that as a win “Don’t rile the kid up, she might do something stupid and reckless again” he teases, Tasha scoffs

“I’m not a teenager Cap” she says quite frustrated, ignoring the fact that she does, actually, do stupid and reckless things most of the time and proceeds to blast another rider “But whatever, enough of my very legal age, birdbrain, what else you’ve got for me?”

“Well.. Thor’s taking on a squadron down on 6th” 

“And he didn’t invite me” she says mocking offense but still flying to him

“Guys, none of this is gonna mean a damn thing if we don’t close that portal” Nat sounds breathless

“Our biggest guns couldn’t touch it” Steve interjects

“Yeah, not even my repulsor could do anything to it” Tasha adds

“Well maybe it’s not about guns” Stark knows that Romanov did something else because Steve says

“You wanna get up there, you’re gonna need a ride”

“Need any help my lovely deadly spider?” Tasha’s mechanical voice asks

“Don’t worry, I got a ride, I could use a lift though” she doesn’t have the slightest idea of what the spy is talking about

“Are you sure about this?” Steve sounds uncertain

“Yeah, it’s gonna be fun” 

Tasha is blasting aliens close when she sees Nat run at Captain America, and jump on Cap’s shield to grab onto a flying chariot, Stark is thoughtfully impressed with both, Nat cuts the turret shooter’s linkage to it, then jumps on the rider and sticks her knives into his nervous system, getting to bank over a building.

Seeing as Nat has everything in control, Tasha only flies near and shoots any surrounding Chitauri riders, then she makes her way down to land next to Captain America who is fighting more soldiers, she points her hand boosters at his shield, the energy coming off and Cap using it as a reflected beam that takes down nearby Chitauri. Tasha flies again with a blossoming happiness in her chest, she never dreamt of fighting alongside her childhood hero (and new found crush) she’s a little lightheaded, hence not noticing Clint taking down any riders near her, she does notice Hulk and Thor tearing apart one of the Leviathan though.

“Captain, the bank on 42nd past Madison, they caught a lot of civilians there” Hawkeye warns

“On it”

“Be careful Cap, we don’t want your pretty face getting scrapped” the tone couldn’t be anything else than flirting, he blushes despite Tasha not being able to see him but he still gives as gets

“That should be said to you, don’t hurt your little cute face” she could even see his grin

“Why, captain, I'm flattered that you think little old me is cute” her blush was to be denied till her last breath

“You are everything else but old kid, now stop trying to bed a national icon before you make me puke” of course Clint had to decide to be an ass, so what if she did want to bed him? ‘ _I mean... it’s not like he has anything that it’s not bedding material_ ’ she thinks

“Shut it Hawkass” she definitely doesn’t pout, her friendly banter is short closed by an explosion in the direction of the bank, Tasha gets so startled she almost crash into a building, god she hopes Steve is okay

“Nat, what are you doing?” Barton perplexed voice takes her out of her musings

“Racing, isn’t obvious?”

“Careful... your Stark is showing”

“Hey!” Tasha pouts, really, both assassins teaming up to tease her? Not cool at all

“Uh... a little help?” she hears Nat say, she can’t see them, but she prays for them to be alright

“I’ve got him” Clint’s voice is dripping venom so she knows that he’s looking at Loki, seconds later she hears another boom nearby and a manical grin appears in her helmet covered face thinking about the explosive arrows she gave him in their last meeting.

 ~

Iron man flies next to one of the Chitauri Leviathan and aims her lasser booster at it, it doesn’t even leave a scrach.

“Miss, we will loose power before you cut through that shell” JARVIS voice informs her, she takes a second to mentally apologize Rhodey for making him loose the bet with Pepper about how much time would it take for her to do something incredibly dumb again and flies up ahead, facing the oncomming monster

“JARVIS, you ever heard the tale of Jonah?”

“I wouldn’t consider him a role model miss” the AI sounds completely unamused, and she holds a little chuckle as she flies torwads the Chitauri Leviathan, unleashing every arsenal on the suit, the monster opens its mouth, Tasha takes the oportunity and flies in, shooting with everything she gots as she passes through the Leviathan and burts out the other end, making it collapse. Tasha rolls down the street, the wind knocked out of her, she looks up to an overwhelming sight as a small band of Chitauri soldiers rush towards her and start trashing her suit. There are so many and it’s like this is endless, her power is dropping and her body is both hurt and tired, she doesn’t know how much she's going to stand, and something tells her that the others are equally at their limit. A minute later, she has uncle Nick upset voice in her personal comms

“Toni, you hearing me? We have a missile headed straight for the city” that promptly freezes her for a minute, a wave of panic runs through her body

“How long?” she doesn’t know if the breathless question comes from the little shock over the news or over the Chitauri bashing her

“Three minutes at best, you gotta stay low and wipe out the missile” the 'please be careful' remains unsaid as uncle Nick gets cut out from the network, she snarls  

“JARVIS! Put everything we got into the thrusters!”

“I just did” the AI answers concerned, Iron man leaves the streets, getting rid of the aliens on her and flies into the sky, the World Security Council thinks that they can just blow Manhattan up for a few petty aliens? Well they are wrong, this is her home, of all of them really, is where she met Clint, where Pepper and her made their clean energy dream come true, New York is where she's planning to have her new Avengers family live with her, she isn’t having any of that, no bomb, no aliens, no nothing, she's sick of all this, and if she has to do something stupid and reckless again then she’ll do it, to save her city and her family fighting there, she’ll gladly do it  

“I can close it! Can anybody hear me? I can shut the portal down” Nat’s tired but determined voice reaches her, interrumpting her thoughts

“Do it!” Cap orders

“No, wait!” she almost yells

“Stark, these things are still coming” ' _Steve Steve Steve..... I told you to call me Tasha_ ’ she thinks with hysterical fondness

“I can’t believe I’m saying this, I got a nuke coming in and it’s gonna blow in less than a minute...” her heat sensors find the missile and she puts even more energy in her boots to catch it “And I know just where to put it” she can hear the sharp breath from her teammates, her family, they are thinking the same thing she is. Tasha comes at the missile from behind, it sppeeds on, but so does she, finally she grabs it from behind, gripping it tightly. With a mighty effort she wrenches the rocket off its course, steering it from behind, she accelerates quickly, flying straight up into ths sky, torwards the portal

“Natasha Antonia Stark what the hell do you think you are doing?!” Clint shirks in the comms, she winces, not her best plan, granted, probably they were expecting to only diverted it into the sea and then blow it, but this is better, this way, any stupid alien can see that the Earth is not to take lightly and to better back the fuck off

“T-Tash... you... you don’t have to do this...” even Steve sounds chocked “This is a one-way trip don't do this!” he begs and she feels nauseus for doing this to them

“If I don’t go back in 15 seconds close the portal” she says with her cold, business-like voice, she can’t show weakness, no now, no when she is going to at least die in the glory of battle, and not by some mere kiddnappers or stupid, over-rated palladium. A few chocked sounds ring in the comms

“Miss, shall I call Mr Rhodes or Ms Potts?” JARVIS asks and she gulps, if she does make it out of this alive, they are going to kill her

“Sure, might as well” Unfortunately they don’t answer, Rhodey in the middle of a military assault and Pepper in the plane, watching in shock the destruction in New York.

Iron man climbs higher and higher over the city, gaining speed, suddenly flings herself through the portal cutting off all of her communications, back on Earth, everybody minus the Avengers cheers and Fury tries without success to call his, practically, niece.

Up in the space, as the suit starts to freeze, Tasha looks in horror a complete armada, the black space is filled with what must be ninety ships in a vague cluster, most of them hang still in the air, some, move swimmingly about; her mind seems to close on itself, all of this... should be theoretically impossible, these monsters shouldn’t exist, and even if they do, they shouldn’t be on Earth for starters. She lets go of the missile, it whistles off into the blackness as she falls back down the portal’s opening, she sees with morbidly satisfaction as the main ship implodes, causing the entire armada to burst into a supernova, creating a spectacular heavenly display, Tasha closes her eyes, her suit stops responding alltogether and she’s running out of oxigen, she doesn’t want to die, not yet, not when she finally gets to have her live in order, not when she finally knows her hero, not when said hero looked at her with those perfect blue eyes and cute smile, not when she learn the joy of teasing and flirting the most handsome national icon... a little tear rolls down her cheek , ‘ _Welcome to earth motherfuckers_  ’ it’s the last thing she thinks before everything fades into black.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> here lies my writing inspiration, you'll be missed


	12. Back from the dead

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which the Hulk gets hired as an emergency paramedic, Steve finds a new home and everything ends well

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First of all, sorry I didn't upload this earlier, yesterday was a crazy day for me  
> This is the last official chapter, well, where the Avenger's movie ends at least, I'll put up an epilogue with fluffy Stony either tonight or tomorrow so yeah, that's that, I hope you like this fic which is my  
> A) First Marvel fic ever  
> B) First AO3 post fic  
> C) The first long fic/story I actually finish and I like it  
> so I'm pretty excited. Thank you for following this story and all your kudos and comments  
> (special shout-out to ameve2 (I don't know how to tag sorry :c) for commenting every chapter! thank you I love you too much! <3

Steve watches as Tasha flies the missile with a feeling of dread, she is so young, she doesn’t deserve this, he doesn’t want her to do this, he wants to keep seeing those beautiful chocolate eyes, that little energy she showed at the lab, he hasn’t even had the chance to draw her or get to know her better. A weight is clutching his heart, he has to blink back some tears as he continues to fight aliens. Suddenly all the Chitauri soldiers and Leviathans keel over and begin to shake, then stop and fall over. She made it, Tasha saved them, Steve smiles just a little, hoping that this is a true victory and she comes soon to them. The Avengers looks at the portal begging for their little genius to return, slowly, oh so slowly, Steve Rogers counts to 15, even to 20 seconds, Thor and himself see as the supernova threatens to pass through the hole, they have to stop it before it can cause damage to the city. Captain America makes the choice

“Close it” he says quietly, biting his tongue to not call off the order, her sacrifice would be pointless if they get killed by the radiation slipping through the black portal, he knows Romanov follows it as he sees the portal close quickly, he hears a choked sound and can only imagine it comes from Clint, but in all honesty, it could come from any of them.

Then... a miracle, a small figure is hurled back into the once open and now closed portal, the armor plums to the Earth

“Oh thank god” Steve breaths, he smiles, relief purring from every pore, relief that is cut pretty quickly when he sees that she is not flying.... she is falling, and falling and still falling down to an imminent death, he trembles, the memory of Bucky fresh enough to terrify him 

“She’s not slowing down!” Thor starts swinging Mjölnir to get her when the Hulk snags Iron man out of the air, both of them crash and slide down a building, he then throws her off him. Steve and Thor run over to her, the Norse god ripping her helmet off. Her eyes are closed and she looks so still and pale that Steve starts to think the worst

"Rogers!" Nat's voice grounds him "Listen to me, this is important! Does the arc reactor glows?" she asks in a demanding and urgent tone

"The.... what?" Steve is breathless over the whole situation

"The circular thing in her chest plate, DOES. IT. GLOWS?" he looks, but there's nothing glowing or that looks remotely on

"N-no... there's nothing glowing" he stutters, not fulling grasping the seriousness of his answer

"No..." her voice becomes barely a whisper "That... no! she isn't-" Steve freezes, a top spy like Romanov doesn't act like that, not unless... Clint lets out a sob. But Steve... Steve's a soldier, he can't have another innocent youngster die on him, he just can't, he can't take it. He relieves on Captain's America cool and collected mindset, but before he can do anything, like CPR, the Hulk roars in fury and pain, the noise startles Tasha alive, who takes a huge and panicky gasp

“What the hell? What just happened?” she looks around frantic, her breathing barely beginning to stabilize “Oh- oh please tell me somebody kissed me” Cap almost blushes at that, almost. Instead, he laughs in utter alleviation and talks into the comms

“She is back” he can hear the relief sighs of Black widow and Hawkeye, then he turns to the kid, a dashingly smile on his face “We won” he breaths, Tasha closes her eyes for a second that makes Capitan America panic, he doesn’t want to see her like that ever again, she is a swell girl after all. When she opens them, the weight of the battle seems to be reflected in her gorgeous eyes

“Alright, hey, alright. Fuck.... someone tell Clint I totally won the bet! oh, my sweet Jesus” she looks a beat away from a full panic attack “Good job guys, let’s just... not come in tomorrow yeah? Let’s just take the day off. Have you ever tried shawarma? There’s a shawarma joint about two blocks from here, I don’t even know what it is but I wanna try it. For free, I want birdbrain to treat me a shawarma” Steve looks at her fondly, she’s so ridiculous, and he is so, so happy that she is safe, so ridiculously glad that’s not even funny.

“We’re not finished yet” Thor interrupts her babble

“Oh... but Shawarma date after?” she asks tentatively, Steve faintly blushes at the word date and Tasha together but he just smiles and nods

“Yeah Stark, shawarma date after” the grin Tasha sends his way is worth every bruise in his body

~ 

Back in the seemingly destroyed Stark Tower, Loki crawls onto the stair, looking like has seen better days, which’s probably true, he takes a few breathers and turns sensing someone behind him, he finds the Avengers staring at him, clearly pissed off, Hawkeye going as far as to aim an arrow right at his head

“If it’s all the same to you... I’ll have that drink now”

~ 

2 hours after, Sitwell finds the heroes in a little-destroyed Shawarma joint, eating but all in various degrees of shock and stress, the most obvious is Tasha, who hasn’t even touch her food, Steve's looking at her with concern written on his face, but she doesn’t notice as she's staring at some point on the wall, all the implications that she died, again, coming up to meet her. Oh her new trauma was going to be so fun, new nightmares, that’s for sure, she was actually getting tired of the ones with Afganistan, and Obie and Palladium, sure she still has some with dear old Howard, but those are ancient history, the space invasion is the new black after all. Steve, of course, can’t know about those thoughts, he can only see the blank stare in the young woman’s face, as he is watching her intently resting his head on his fist. Tasha is taken out of her dazed state by a french fry that Nat throws at her, Stark looks at her a little dizzy but starts eating. Steve keeps looking at the genius, trying to comb with the fact that someone so young had actually and actively risk her life to save all of them.

"What is it, agent Sitwell?" Clint asks without even looking back, he also stares at Tasha

"Agents" he greets the heroes with a polite nod "Director Fury sends me to inform you that Special Agent Coulson is no longer in danger and he's going to be transferred to a special SHIELD hospital, the address' gonna be sent to you as soon as possible, also Director Fury asked me to tell you that you should lay low for a while, for the sake of your safety, just while the debate with the World Security Council ends" the only confirmation he receives is a general hum. But Steve can feel as a weight is lifted from all of them   

 ~

“So... let’s see each other again... in better circumstances shall we?” Tasha says to Thor as he takes Loki with special cuffs complete with a mouth-piece, she thinks for a beat and speaks again "You know what? scratch that, you are always welcome in the Tower, Point break, come whenever you want, I'll have your floor ready" she smiles already making plans and blueprints in her head. Steve eyes her curiously

"I feel quite honored lady Natasha, you can rest assure that whatever room you give me, is going to be deeply appreciated" the genius beams and blushes for all answer, Cap thinks it's adorable. Thor takes his brother and aligns the device that contains the Tesseract, that creates a portal and both gods disappear

"So... what's that I hear about our rooms in the Tower?" Clint back-hugs her, teasing her hair relentlessly, Tasha whines by all protest

"I told you before birdbrain!, I want to remodel the Tower and give it to you guys!" the young millionaire grins at the remaining Avengers "Just in case you need a place to live" she adds shyly 

"Of course we'll stay котенок, we need to stay close in case you do anything that stupid again" Nat says ruffling her hair as well. Tasha pouts 

"You are so not letting me live this down, aren't you?" 

"Oh, you bet! And just you want 'till we tell both Pepper and Rhodey about this, assuming they don't know already, this is going to be soo fun, you are going to be in soo much trouble!" the archer teases her 

"That's it! Clint! you are sleeping in the vents!" the tiny adorable genius pouts and Barton side-hugs her this time

"Sweetheart, I was going to sleep there anyway" Tasha shoves him making him yelp, Nat only laughs quietly as they walk to their respective cars. Bruce is waiting next to a sports car with a nervous smile on his features, the genius dumps both spies and runs to him, she tilts her head to the right side and looks at him expectantly

"I...." Bruce breaths and starts again "I was promised a tour in Candyland?" Tasha grins and beams and looks the happiest that Steve has seen her since he met her a few days back

"Then hop up in" she says opening a door for him, Bruce sheepishly comply  

Steve goes to his motorbike when he hears an amused voice 

"Hey Spangles!" he looks to the sports car that drove next to him, a genius that looks far too young to be driving grins to him "Follow us, you have your designated suit as well!" 

"Then lead the way Shellhead" he answers before starting his bike

The smirk in Tasha's face is more than enough to already make him feel like home already

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't let the open end fool you, there's going to be an epilogue with fluff and more friendship-almost something else- stony :v  
> for the next series I'll do Iron Man 3 with tiny Tasha and Steve, also there's going to be special changes on that one besides the obvious ones, (of course it would be much easier if I actually manage to find the script ¬¬)  
> See you in the final!


	13. Epilogue: Night Drinks

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally the end! enjoy!

If there's one downside about being a super soldier is the enhanced hearing most of the times, like the ones when he has light sleep yet he actually seeks for rest. Steve rolls in his bed, he wants to sleep, he really wants to, but his senses focus too much in other things like the sounds of the cars on the streets or of the air passing through the vents and among those sounds, he can hear the quiet sobs of someone in the tower. 

Steve gets up, done with trying to relax and exits the suit the genius gave to him earlier while the rest of the Tower is being remodeled, he follows the soft sound to the common room and finds a little silhouette in the sofa, he inhales sharply; Tasha is covering her face and if it wasn't because of his special ears, he wouldn't even notice the tiny movements in her shoulders, it's a trait that no person, especially no young person like her, should have. Steve drags his feet in the floor to the couch, aiming to cause enough noise for her to know that he's there but not too much as to startle her. He sits next to her, as close as he needs to feel her freeze for a second, he slowly puts his arms around her, hugging the little body of the genius and starts humming a melody his mother used to sing to him in the nights where his asthma was bad. They stay like that for almost an hour, yet Steve doesn't even feel the time passing until Tasha looks up to him and hugs him back, he feels his heart break just a little, he wants to take her pain away, because she is such a brave and kind person, she offered them a place to live for free for god's sake! and that's not even mentioning the whole almost dying to save the city.

“Thank you Spangles, you are my hero” she whispers drying her cheeks and the rim of her eyes, Steve smiles at her

“It’s my pleasure to aid young ladies like yourself” he mocks a knight, going as far as to bow to her, she snorts and laughs

“Yeah I saw that a while ago” she sends him a look he can’t decipher, he must seemed confused cause she makes a motion and her AI starts the TV right in one of the many interviews the news did to the survivors of the alien invasion, there's a young woman who he thinks was at the bank when he save it   
”What? That this was somehow their fault? Captain America saved my life, wherever any of them are, I wanna say thank you”

Tasha raises an eyebrow a smug expression in her features, Steve looks at her sheepishly, he's definitely not used to fame

“Should I be jealous?” she leers making him blush a deep shade of red

“I... no, I... why would you?...” his babbles is interrupted by her delighted laugh

“I’m teasing Steve, of course you now are going to have your own fan club” there was a glint in her eyes he couldn’t ignore “I do hope you are prepared for all the fangirls" she chuckles, he's at loss just imagining the nightmare that would be, it's not like he doesn't appreciate it, he does, but he just wants to help people, no the recognition that comes with it "I was going to look at some of the footage of the battle with a good bottle of scotch if you want to stay” her ‘ _please stay_ ’ remained untold

“Sure shellhead” Steve said biting his tongue to not protest about the alcohol, even if she looks like a kid she already is on legal age, or at least is going to be in a couple of months if Nat’s earlier teasing is anything to go by and only she knows what she needs to get over her nightmare

“You said that before... what does it mean?” she asks bringing two bottles and two glasses, she serves one to him and one to herself; Steve shrugs

“You are a tin, I mean, your helmet is a tin can, kind of a shell really, so.... shellhead” that prompted a good laugh out of the young Stark

“Well, you have wings on your cowl” she looks at him intently making Steve stay still for a second, just letting himself to lose in those big brown eyes, she smirks smugly “Winghead” it's Steve’s turn to laugh out loud “Alright winghead, J said there was something amusing in the footage of the Tower, let's see what is it...”

She puts play to the records and they can see Loki, the god of mischief stand up at the Hulk, "Enough! All of you are beneath me! I'm a God, you dull creature, and I will not be bullied..." his rant stops short when the Hulk starts smashing him against the floor like a ragdoll. When the god's good as a pancake, he steps away muttering “Punny god”, and Tasha and Steve just about die laughing

After that they entertain themselves exchanging tips of fighting, downing glass after glass, Steve, of course, can't get drunk, but the genius has a very high tolerance if she says so herself. At some point, their conversation diverged and Tasha starts telling him a few stories that her uncles had told her when she was younger prompting Steve to either die of laughter or die of embarrassment, he changes some stories, other he confirms it "Yes I was really skinny and tiny before" and "No that was Dum Dum's doing! How could you believe that?!"

 It's almost three o clock in the morning Tasha decides that she is drunk enough to make the question that she had always wanted to make but never dared to do to all of her uncle and aunt 

“What was uncle Bucky like?” she whispers, fearful of touching a sour subject that makes him hate her, instead, Steve shows her a warm yet pained smile 

“He was a great person, even when I had nothing I had Bucky, do you know what’s that like?” Tasha nods fondly and knocks her glass number 'only God knows at this point'

“When my parents and my butler Jarvis died I was alone, there were aunt Peggy and aunt Angie of course, but...” she pauses, taking a sip from her newly served drink, and Steve makes an acknowledgment sound “I had nothing, then I met Rhodey and with him I was able to go through, he is my honeybear, I don’t know what I’ll do without him” she admits

“It was almost the same with me and Bucky, he was with me when my mother died and he always took care of me when I was sick which it was pretty much all the time. He was sarcastic yet charming" the time keeps moving as they keep drinking, Steve tells her more stories about them as kids, and as teenagers, he chuckles "The bastard always got all the ladies, even the ones he was trying to send my way, I'm sure you would've like him" Tasha was pretty drunk at this point, three and a half bottle after, so she doesn't even try to stop herself from blurting 

"What kind of idiot woman wouldn't want you?" now, Steve knows she is ass drunk, he can see it in her red face and hear it in her slurred words, that knowledge doesn't keep him from blushing as he does though, Tasha's eyes are half closed as she smiles sweetly at him "Don't worry Captain, I'll always like you" she mutters falling asleep on his shoulder.

Steve can do little as Tasha arranges herself on top of the walking furnace called Super-Soldier, he sighs and drops an arm around her, well if he is going to be used as a pillow he is going to take full advantage of that and hug the little genius until her nightmares are gone  

The next morning they are found sleeping like that, Steve hugs Tasha and Tasha clings to Steve while being right on top of him, nobody says anything to the pair until is breakfast time and they have to wake them up, Tasha having not quite the mother of hangovers, but one really close to it. Neither Nat nor Clint mentions the compromising situation they founded in, but if they took adorable pictures of a certain genius with a full-size national icon/cap-bear, well only they and Bruce know.   

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is it, thank you so much for staying with me through this fic and I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I did writing it, and I'll love to read your thoughts, comments, and suggestions about this. also, sorry about any horrible mistake in there, I'm writing this with my eyes half closed because sleeping 4 hours a day is not healthy kids!  
> the next work is going to be Iron Man 3: "kicking the villain ass totally counts as a date, right?"  
> I love you all guys <3 <3  
> see you at the next one!


End file.
